The Good, the Bad, and the Meta.

Everything written below is purely my thoughts on game mechanics. Nothing is binding. Play as you and only you like. But maybe you'll find something useful for yourself.

Builds.

When creating a character in the Inner Empire, the system is designed so that there are only 5 possible options for distributing the start Ability levels. These 5 options can be divided into 3 builds:

1. Versatile

• 3-1-1-1-1-1
• 2-2-1-1-1-1

2. Specialist

• 3-2-1-1-0-0
• 3-3-0-0-0-0

3. Narrow Profile

• 4-0-0-0-0-0

Please note that numbers do not refer to any particular Ability but to its level at the game's start. So the first number is whatever your strongest Ability is, be it Vigor or Intrigue or whatever. The following numbers are the levels of other Abilities in descending order.

Versatile and Specialist can be categorized as "good" build options. The difference between them is mainly in whether there are undeveloped, zero, Abilities at startup or not.

The Narrow Profile, on the other hand, can be either "bad" or "meta". It more depends on your game strategy.

Strategies.

1. Fast Expansion.

This strategy is to instantly convert the Insight points received into exp for one or more Abilities, to achieve their growth as quickly as possible. No or almost no reserve of Insight points. Works best with Versatile builds.

2. Careful Planning.

This strategy is about building up a ~ 5+ or even 10+ point reserve of Insight, where the excess over the limit is converted into exp for an Ability (or several of them) you want. Works best with Specialist builds.

3. Greedy Hamster.

Accumulation of Insight points for the sake of accumulation. No spending to convert to Ability exp, or for situational check boosts.

The very essence of Insight is its expendability. Greed Hamster may work just fine in the beginning (Chapter 1), but the further you go, the more useless it’ll becomes, because the average difficulty level of checks will slowly increase. Ability should be able to keep up. Which means growing.

Yes, if you have a few dozen Insight points, you can get out of any situation at all. But at the same time, the difficulty of the checks will go up, the Abilities not so much, and the cost of Insight to cover the difference when you finally be ready to spend it will get higher and higher. Being a Greedy Hamster isn't the best strategy, if you ask me. But it's possible, so it's here.

4. Mindless Waste

This "strategy" is usually used due to inexperience, like first time playing. Its essence is that some new players choose all arising options with checks and mindlessly spend Insight on non-critical or purely roleplaying options that often don't even fit their character concepts. Like, "I click on all the biggest numbers, because that's a good thing to do, right?" Nah, not really. The most likely outcome is the lowest possible increase in Abilities, with a chronic lack of Insight.

Of course, Insight can be spent in situations where an option with a check fits perfectly into your roleplay even if it didn't quite match the Abilities profile of your character. From time to time. But if your roleplay forces you to constantly go through checks that your character isn't good at, doesn't that mean you've chosen the wrong Abilities for a character you really want to play?

Insight.

Convert immediately to experience or save up? A popular question. But the answer, as you can see from the above, directly depends on both your build and your chosen strategy.

Converting to exp immediately, gives increased Ability growth, but lacks flexibility in some situations. Accumulating Insight (up to reasonable limits), on the contrary, gives flexibility and readiness for any situation and check, but the total amount of experience in Abilities will be slightly lower. Which, however, is not critical.

During my testing playthroughs, I personally prefer to play through Versatile and Specialist builds using the Careful Planning strategy.

Math.

Converting Insight to Ability gives +5 exp points. Therefore, if you have, say, Ability = 4 and need to pass a check = 5, then spending 1 Insight point is reasonable. Yes, you will lose 1 exp point, but it's not that critical. It can be even more beneficial if you then get +1 to Insight for passing the check (which is not rare).

Spending Insight on checks more than 2 levels higher is undesirable. The exception is if you really want to get into or avoid a situation. Then these losses become the price for making choices that don't fit your character's Ability proficiency. In other words, don't waste Insight on choices that are not critical to you.

All in all, it is not advisable to spend Insight on low checks in the range of 1 to 3. Most of the time it's not worth it. Conversion of these Insight points directly into Ability exp is more profitable. Unless... roleplay. She's the queen, sure. But if abused, you may find yourself on the slippery slope of the Mindless Waste "strategy". With a lot of loss and few gains.

Difficulty.

Everything written above assumes that you are playing on a "fair" start with no extra Insight points. Obviously, with an "easy" or "lazy" start, a lot of things become easier. For example, the Narrow Profile build isn't so... narrow anymore, especially if you put all your Insight points into exp for other Abilities right away. This way you can start the game with a strengthened character. Which, come to think of it, isn't a bad choice if you too often get the annoying itch of not being able to pass some check. But overall, the game is designed and balanced for a "fair" start.

Death and Checks.

In a nutshell, no. Death by failure to pass some check will make some builds a dead end. That's why those situations are impossible right now. A protagonist's death can only be because of the consequences of your choices. Bad ones.

That may change in the future, somewhere closer to the finale. I haven't made up my mind on that yet and I don't think I should. Finale is still a long way off, and I have more pressing concerns.

So, you don't have to worry about falling on the "game over" screen because of some check failure. However, failure to pass a check may have other unpleasant consequences. But not death. For now.